IP gas pipeline

Iranian Foreign Minister Dr Ali Akbar Salehi informed Pakistan Finance Minister Hafeez Sheikh that 90 percent of the work on the Iran-Pakistan gas pipeline has been completed inside Iran. As there are no two opinions about Pakistans desperate need of the pipeline to give a fresh transfusion of blood to our ailing energy sector, the government must quickly take up the construction of its remaining part inside our territory. If there are bureaucratic hitches, they should be at once removed and those responsible for creating them punished because at stake is the survival of our economy. During the meeting a commitment to raise the bilateral trade volume from $1.5 billion to $4.5 billion in the next three years was also made. The good news is that it was announced that Iran would supply 1,100MW of electricity to Pakistan. While these developments are quite heartening it is time we realised that the gas pipeline needs to be developed without further delay and should not waste any time thinking that India would rejoin the project. It would be recalled that India kept picking holes in the project, delaying it indefinitely merely because it wanted to curry favour with the US. And then of course as a reward, the US signed a nuclear deal with it. One hopes that the 2014 deadline for the completion of the pipeline would be met.